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For two days, the Washington press corps has been inundated with news of all the big names in town and the staged photo ops that are customary between visiting leaders and their host. Usually, the conversation is a cursory exchange of issues important in the relationship of both leaders. Rarely do bilateral handshakes get terribly deep.But the reason for everyone in town this week is a fairly deep topic: keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. In what is the biggest collection of world leaders since the 1945 conference that founded the United Nations, top officials from 47 countries—all with nuclear arsenals or some sort of access to fissile material—will sit around tables late Monday and Tuesday to discuss securing their stocks. On that point, there’s general agreement. Most world leaders understand the imperative of preventing terrorist groups like Al Qaeda from obtaining weapons. But there are still some rifts, like who will monitor the international effort, and...

While the congressional fight over health-care reform has wrapped up and legislators moved on, a new, state-level battle over abortion coverage has just begun. The fight comes courtesy of Section 1303 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (page 779 here), which reiterates states’ rights to regulate abortion coverage among their insurers. The key sentence: “A state may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such a prohibition.”This provision actually does not give states any rights they didn’t have before. As Nick Baumann over at Mother Jones recently, and astutely, pointed out, “states have had the right to pass laws regulating insurance, including banning abortion” for over six decades now. Five states (Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, and Oklahoma) already do so, only allowing insurers to cover abortion if the life of the mother is endangered (the Oklahoma...

Congress is back from vacation and scheduled to vote Monday afternoon on extending unemployment insurance benefits for an extra four weeks, primarily for people who have been out of work for several months. ...

When Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed last year to take part in Britain's first-ever televised election debates, which begin next week, the result seemed certain. The fluent and youthful Conservative leader David Cameron, then enjoying a commanding lead in the polls, would easily outperform the dogged prime minister, usually a lackluster speaker....

When Tiger Woods scored a hole in one on the seventh hole at the Masters this Sunday, he threw his hands up in a small celebration. For an instant, the strained look he’d been wearing for most of the tournament passed, but even though that shot put him back in the running for the green jacket, he didn’t seem jubilant. His demonstration seemed, like most of Woods’s play this weekend, forced and rote.Compare that with the sheer joy on Phil Mickelson’s face when he took home the top prize later that day, and the long embrace he shared with his wife, Amy. Mickelson’s game had been off for about 11 months—about the same amount of time Amy has been treated for breast cancer. She was on the course today, watching her husband play brilliant, enthusiastic golf. A few other comparisons: Mickelson created a heartwarming photo op earlier in the week when he invited his wife’s doctor to caddie a few holes during the Houston Open; Woods had security in place at the Masters to prevent any...

The violence that gripped Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, last week quickly turned into a dictator's worst nightmare when the snowballing riots forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee for his life. But by week's end most pundits agreed that the biggest loser was the United States. Kyrgyzstan is home to the Manas air base, a logistical hub for U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan. Ever since Bakiyev came to power in his own 2005 coup, the U.S. has plied him with money and access to keep the runways at Manas open. That support, which came despite allegations of the regime's endemic corruption and human-rights abuses, did not endear Washington to the opposition leaders who have now seized power....

The crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the senior command of the Polish Army is without doubt a national tragedy for Poland. But the disaster is unlikely to have many regional or strategic ramifications. Poland is a parliamentary republic whose president is largely ceremonial—much as in Germany and Italy. Kaczynski’s political role was limited to representing Poland abroad, with policymaking in the hands of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The two men had clashed several times over the last few months over a growing rapprochement between Poland and Russia favored by Tusk. The most recent public rift came last week, when Tusk and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of Polish officers by Stalin’s secret police side by side. Putin, like his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, called the massacre a “terrible tragedy” but emphasized that it should become a “focus of reconciliation” between the Russian and Polish peoples....

Are tea partiers racist? That question has triggered a flood of impassioned commentary in recent months. Opponents depict the movement as a band of cranky old white people brimming with racial resentment, as evidenced by the inflammatory signs that pop up at their rallies and coded language about "taking our country back." Supporters say the movement is motivated quite simply by resistance to big government and that the occasional flashes of racism are overhyped by the media and representative of only a small fringe. As Gallup's Frank Newport recently wrote, "Each side of the political spectrum appears to have a vested interest in portraying the Tea Party movement in the specific way that best fits their ideological positioning." Yet neither side has had much empirical data to draw on. ...

When a Supreme Court justice announces his retirement—as John Paul Stevens did earlier today—the press immediately launches into its "first rough draft of history" mode, filing endless reams of elegant, elegiac prose on Who He Was and What He Meant. This, of course, is understandable. Most of the content produced to fill the gaping maw of today's 24/7 news cycle is small. The retirement of a Supreme Court justice, on the other hand, is big. Reporters want to rise to the occasion. But while the media usually manage to commit plenty of good journalism in moments like these, their affect in the aggregate is probably to compress rather than expand our sense of the outgoing justice's legacy. Readers don't have a lot of time or interest, so amid the flood of retrospectives, they tend to latch onto whichever shorthand, cheat-sheet label gets repeated most frequently. Sandra Day O'Connor was the pioneering moderate. William Rehnquist was the Western federalist....

The mother of the Gregory Lee Giusti, the man who is accused of making nearly 50 threatening calls to Nancy Pelosi over health-care reform, spoke to a Bay Area radio station about how FOX News had radicalized her son. ...

It's a funny thing about Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced today he's stepping down. Despite serving on the court for 35 years—that's 12 years longer than this Gaggler's even been alive—many observers agree that he came into his jurisprudential own in the last 10 to 15 years. A few key decisions are likely to be remembered as his most important ones. We called some observers to get their input, and combined their lists to produce this one. Among those contributing ideas: Doug Kendall, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center; Brina Milikowsky, legal counsel at the liberal Alliance for Justice; the liberal People for the American Way; and Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute....

In the artfully balanced world of the Supreme Court, the liberal versus conservative divide takes precedence when one justice leaves and another is cued up to fill the slot. John Paul Stevens timed his resignation to insure that President Obama could replace him with another liberal-minded jurist. But there is another less talked-about balance that Stevens brought to the court, and that’s his Midwestern upbringing and education. Like so many reporters researching the Internet to learn more about Stevens in the wake of his announced resignation, I found a post by a senior at Northwestern University pointing out that Stevens attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern Law School making him the only one of the nine sitting justices who got his law degree from a non-East Coast Ivy League law school. By this student’s account, four current justices received their law degrees from Harvard, three from Yale and one from Columbia—and that’s because Ruth Bader Ginsburg transferred to...

By Jerry AdlerNOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 2010 as CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH in our COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens—Proclamation by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.Now I don’t know what country Bob McDonnell thinks he’s from.The one that I was born in fought, in 1861,A war for its survival, when Virginia tried to bolt.And only barely won it, thanks to Grant and Samuel Colt.I’m sure that Bob McDonnell is a patriotic sortWho wouldn’t ever be accused of wanting to consortWith enemies who hate us and our sacred way of livingNo terrorist should count on Bob McDonnell for forgiving.Except, of course, for those who fought, away back in the dayIn service of secession and against the USA.Now I’m not one for waving flags, but can we set some ground rules?It isn’t love of country that’s the last refuge of scoundrels. It’s sentimental longing for a mythic past of bravery(Careful to avoid the part that has to...

By Justin VogtRepublican National Committee chairman Michael Steele has vexed GOPers ever since winning the post last year and promising that, as the first African-American chairman, he would be able to expand the GOP's appeal by introducing its principles to "hip-hop settings." This would be accomplished through an "off the hook" rebranding effort. Steele pledged that the PR campaign would be unlike anything either political party had done before. "It will be avant garde, technically," he explained to The Washington Times.Indeed, his tenure has frequently seemed like an exercise in performance art—technically and otherwise. Perhaps Steele was aiming for a sort of Brechtian alienation effect when it was revealed that the RNC had funded a night out for young GOP donors at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub in Los Angeles that bills itself as a "destination for provocative revelry."Conservatives, at least, were provoked. The...

Just because something isn't broken, doesn't mean it can't be, right? Hey, the idea isn't exactly an old adage, but software firm Intego thinks it might be a moneymaking move. The company, which only produces security products for Macs, is offering VirusBarrier X6 10.6.5 to keep your iPad free of malware. The software is really an updated version of the anti-malware tool they designed for Mac computers and iPhones. It runs on a user's main computer and scans the iPad for malicious files whenever a person plugs it in. The software won't load on the iPad because Apple doesn't currently allow multitasking, making it difficult for stuff like antivirus software to run in the background. In other words, this is not what you might call a shroud of protection.Theoretically, Apple deals with possible virus vulnerabilities by only running Apple-approved apps on its systems. So then why bother developing an antivirus software for this device? Intego spokesman...

After a day of bloody riots and chaotic looting, the dust seems to have settled in Kyrgyzstan today. That's not to say the fat lady has sung; ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told the BBC that he was still in southern Kyrgyzstan and had "no plans" to leave. But even he admits that he doesn't "have any real levers of power." In the meantime, city-service employees in Bishkek are going about the business of cleaning the capital, while residents stroll through the city surveying the clutter; it's a scene almost eerie in its mundane similarity to Times Square on New Year's Day.But while the capital may be settled, Russia's role in the whole affair is most certainly not. "Russia played its role in ousting Bakiyev," Omurbek Tekebayev, an opposition leader working in the new transitional government, told Reuters. "You've seen the level of Russia's joy when they saw Bakiyev gone." Such ecstasy in Moscow...

Earlier this morning, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder broke news that Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak will retire, which has since been confirmed by the Associated Press. As followers of the health-care debate now know well, Stupak was the representative who pushed for stringent abortion language in the health-care bill. His departure comes in the face of entreaties from Democrat leaders, including Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), encouraging the nine-term Democrat to have another go at it. Stupak’s departure does not really surprise me. By time the final vote rolled around, the Michigan Democrat had essentially driven himself into a corner where he was certain to please no one. Stupak spent the entire health-care debate pushing for particularly restrictive language that, at the last minute, he decided wasn’t actually necessary. Recall this behind-the-scenes bit from my colleague Jonathan Alter on how the health-care debate went down: Stupak had lost his leverage after he...

Who dat? It's the Republican conservatives (a redundancy) of the South, meeting here in New Orleans for a conference at the Riverside Hilton and feeling as feisty and confident at the Super Bowl–winning New Orleans Saints....

The world—and Twitter skeptics—saw a dramatic illustration of the microblogging service's usefulness in Iran last summer. Twitter provided an outlet for outsiders to understand what was going on in the country despite a brutal crackdown on media, and it was a useful tool for opposition protesters to organize and share information, evading government control....

Liz Lemon, the fictional TV writer at the center of NBC’s hit show 30 Rock, is often cited as an example of the modern-day working woman and the face of modern feminism. Her appeal to smart, independent women is understandable; Lemon heads her department at work, struggles with that elusive work/life balance, fights stereotypes about body image and "ladylike" behavior, and often feels like the only sane voice in an office full of lunatics.
But Liz Lemon’s feminism can be problematic. At least, that’s what TigerBeatdown blogger Sady Doyle argues in a fantastic post published last month. She outlines 13 different ways of thinking about Lemon, but here are some of the highlights: 1. Lemon is portrayed as an “exceptional” woman: the only smart, capable woman in a field of slutty, slobby, neurotic morons. The other women on the show, notes Doyle, are not friends or equals, but reminders that other girls can be so, so dumb—and therefore not worthy of femi...

This morning I posted a response to Greg Sargent's complaint that Rudy Giuliani gets invited onto cable-news talk shows to criticize Obama's nuclear-posture review when Giuliani appears to know nothing about it. I contended that Sargent was wrong to argue that only a Republican politician who holds a position of influence over national security, such as Sen. John McCain, should be invited to criticize Obama's national-security policies on air. Giuliani is as broadly qualified (or unqualified) as the Democratic (or Republican) strategists, or liberal or conservative commentators, who recite partisan talking points about every political issue no matter how far from their experience. But I agreed with Sargent that his identification of Giuliani's apparent ignorance of what Obama's nuclear strategy actually is with regard to Iran is a real problem....

After months of highly publicized and well-funded lobby battles over health-care and student-loan reform, it was becoming easy to diagnose money as the leading evil responsible for polarizing American politics. But a new Rasmussen poll reports the contrary. New numbers out this week show that a majority of voters (55 percent) lay the blame on media bias over money (32 percent)—suggesting that they’re more frustrated with the pundits inside their TVs and newspapers (and, OK, magazines too) than the fat checkbooks in Washington.It’s somewhat obvious that increasingly ideological programming on the cable channels has contributed to polarization. The sheer fact that Glenn Beck made $32 million last year illuminates just how big of a business opinion journalism can be. (It’s also a factor of why CNN, the most centrist of the three cable power hitters during prime-time programming, has seen its ratings slump over the past year.) But it’s a big deal, and certainly worth noting, when media...

Over at TPM, Jim Sleeper, author of Liberal Racism, has a review of New York Times veteran Gerald Boyd's memoir My Times in Black and White. In it, he makes passing reference to New York liberals being much less able to grapple with the issues his book raised than their counterparts in Chicago. Having lived in both cities, I think I can explain why. ...